127 
05 T7 
opv 1 



NOTICES 



MEN AND EVENTS, 



CONNECTED WITH THE 



EARLY HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY. 



ERRATA. 


• 


Page 38, line 3 from the bottom, for " Northerm,' 


' read northern, 


" 41, " 16 " top, " "1807," 


" 1801. 

i 









NOTICES 



MEN AND EVENTS 



CONNECTED WITH THE 



EARLY HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY- 



TWO LECTURES, DELIVERED BEFORE THE YOUNG MENS' ASSOCIATION' 
OF THE CITY OF UTICA, 



BY WILLIAM TRACY. 



>1 



^tUsJeti ct tlje request of tjie ^ssocfatron. 



UTICA: 

R. NORTHWAY, Jr. PRINTER, 116 GENESEE STREET. 

1838. 






At a meeting of the Young Mens' Association of the city of Utica, held April 

2nd, 1838, 

Resolved, That the thanks of this Association be tendered to Wiluam Tracy, 
Esq., for his interesting Lectures upon" Men and Events connected with the early 
history of Oneida county," and that a copy of the same be requested for publi- 
cation. 

GEORGE S. DANA, Recording Secretary. 



LECTURE I 



About seventy-three years since, a youth who had just completed 
his academical career, and had been inducted into the sacred office of 
a christian teacher, met at asocial interview in a small town in New 
Jersey, a middle aged minister of the gospel, and a venerable saint, 
whose name will live when ages shall have rolled away, and be re- 
verenced ^vhile piety exists on earth. The youth, full of zeal in 
the servic6 he had espoused, was seeking a theatre wherein to 
proclaim the glad tidings of salvation by the Cross, and the full- 
ness and freeness of divine grace. He had sought the advice of 
these friends, to direct him where to go to do the will of his Master, 
and best obey the parting injunction of his Lord. The middle- 
aged minister told him, that in early life, as the chaplain of a regi- 
ment of the colonial troops, who in the war between France and 
the British American Colonies, had been ordered to the wilderness 
which lay westward from the German settlements on the Mohawk, to 
the great lakes, he had traversed the country of the warlike but no- 
ble nations of the Iroquois. For a time he had sojourned in the 
neighborhood of the Oneidas, and had tasted of their hospitality, and 
become acquainted with their habits and manner of life. He pour- 
trayed them as the noblest of the sons of the forest. Fierce and 
untiring in warfare, but generous, hospitable, grateful and benevolent 
in their domestic life. As the worshippers of the one Great Spirit 
of all good ; but ignorant of the attributes which he has revealed 
to the favored sons of civilization, they, like the men of Athens, 
vrorshipped an unknown God. He spoke of the country they in- 
habited, beautiful even in its native wilderness state, and aboimding 
in all that was necessary to render its possessors the most favored 
sons of earth. And he painted from fancy and with a poet's pen- 
cil, the scene it might exhibit, when these sons of the forest, had be- 
come enlightened with the true light which shineth from above, 
and when the arts, and comfort^ and elegancies of civilization, with 



the holj hopes of Christianity, had become their portioin ;— when 
their country had sprung from the blooming wilderness, to the pic- 
turesque and cultivated and ornamented field and grove and gar- 
den; its homely wigwam and its rude cabin, to the stately mansion 
and magnificent hall ; — when seminaries of learning, and halls of 
science, and temples of the Most High, occupied the places where 
the stillness of the forest only echoed to the ^ellsofvild beasts, or the 
rude gaiety, or the piercing war cry of its savage lords. And when 
he had dwelt a moment on the picture, he pointed out the happiness 
of him, who should go the messenger and apostle of Christianity to, 
their land, and aid in accomplishing such a glorious change. 

The soul of the youth felt with, all its force the eloquence of 
his friend, and warmed with a new impulse as he figured to himself 
the scene thus laid before him ; and when the venerated Whitfield, 
for he was the aged servant of the. cross I have before mentioned,, 
urged him to go forth to that field of his Lord, and manfully to lay 
his sickle to that harvest, he gave himself with the determination 
of a Christian martyr, to the proclaiming to the wild men of that re- 
gion, the glorious hopes and promises of the gospel. And the his- 
tory of a long life chequered with many a vicissitude, furnishes am- 
ple proof that this youthful vow becai?ie the Ipad star of his maturer 
years. He went forth with the blessing of his aged friend, and the 
warm wishes of him who had pointed out his path, and who I would 
here remark was the Rev. Mr. Kirkpatrick, father of the late Doc- 
tor Kirkpatrick of Salina, and sought the beautiful land we now in- 
habit, then untenanted, save by it? native lords, to become their 
friend, their instructor, and their guide to happiness— to Heaven ! 
This was Samuel J^irUland, the early, the devoted, the beloved 
friend of the Oneidas: and in attempting toamuse you for an hour 
with bi ief notices of meo and events connected with the early his- 
tory of Oneida county, I feel that it is but justice that his name 
should occupy my foremost page. A native of an obscure parish 
in Coiinecticut,to whose inhabitants his father broke the bread of life 
as a christian pastor, he had early devoted himself to the christian 
ministry and had received the advantages of a classical education 
at the college at Princeton, N. J. Possessed of native talents 
which would have enabled him to occupy a distinguished place 
among the clergymen of the age, and all the adventitious aids which 
|he means of education in thi^ country then afforded, no. ^robi- 



tious views or sordid hope of gain, could have influenced him, 
in turning his back upon the abodes of civilization, relinquishing 
all the pleasure of society, and making the wilderness his home, the 
wild man his companion, and the object of his care. Nor was 
there at the time he thus resolved to devote himself to the happi- 
ness of the native inhabitants of our land, the cordials which now 
sustain the drooping spirits of the missiomuy in heathen lands, 
furnished by the sympathy of friends at home, and the excitement 
of constant communication with them, by means ofpublished and 
wide spread reports and a teeming press. Then, the missionary as 
he entered the forest, felt that a deep night separated him from 
all theconversation, and the very thoughts of his former friends, and 
he could only look to the performance of his duties, and the smiles 
of his heavenly Master, to sustain his spirit in the trials he must en- 
dure. 

The period at which the Rev. Mr, Kiikland commenced his 
mission to the Oneidas was the year 1766. Previous to this time 
no christian teacher had undertaken to learn their language and 
establish himself among them. They were as I have observed the 
worshippers of the Great Spirit,— the creator of all things; but were 
destituteof any rational, or indeed, fixed notions relative to his attri- 
butes. He commenced his labors among them, and immediately 
undertook the task of teaching them, — living among them and en- 
dearing himself to them by his attention, and his amiable and sym- 
pathising spirit. Many of them gave a listening ear to his mstruc- 
tions, and the heart of the good man was often gladdened with 
the encouragement which met his endeavors, as if to cheer him on 
his course. 

The approach of the troubles of the revolution, alter a residence 
of eight or nine years among then), rendered it necessary for him 
to intermit a portion of his strictly ministerial labors. The Six Na- 
tions during the whole colonial history of owf country had cul- 
tivated a firm and warm friendship with the English government, 
and espoused their cause in the ditrculties which had taken place 
between them and the French colonies in Canhda. At the com- 
mencem( rit of the hostilities between the colonisis and the royal 
authorities, several of the tribes constituting them, adhered to their 
former friends, while a portion became the friends and allies of the 
colonists. Of the former was the whole of the Mohawks, who 



after (he final triumph of the native Americans, removed with their 
English allies to Canada, where thoy now reside. Among the Onei- 
das, a large portion of the nation attached themselves to the revolu- 
tionary party, and though maintaining a neutral position, remained 
during the whole contest for our liberties the firm and consistent 
friends of the Americans. There were, however, among the Onei- 
das many who doubted the propriety of making cause with the colo- 
nist?, and preferred a league with the royal party. Under these cir- 
cumstances, prudence and duty dictated to the present subject of 
our notice, the necessity of removing his family from a position like- 
ly to become the theatre of intestine war, and he accordingly es- 
tablished it for a season at Stockbridge, Mass., but still in the spirit 
of his vow, continued his labor as an Indian missionary among the 
Oneidas, and by his influence with them, contributed very much 
to the maintenance of a firm friendship between a great majority 
of the nation and the Americans. During a portion of the war, 
in addition to his missionary labors, he officiated as chaplain to the 
American forces in the vicinity, and among other service? accom- 
panied the expedition of General Sullivan through the western part 
of New York in the year 1779 in this capacity. After the peace, 
the government of this state, in consideration of his valuable ser- 
vices during the revolution, granted to him the lands lying in the 
town of Kirkland, known as Kiikland's Patent, upon a poition of 
which Hamilton College stands. To these lands he removed his 
family in the year 1792, and continued upon them during the re- 
mainder of his life, occupying the homestead near the village of Clin- 
ton which still remains the home of bis widow. 

At this period in the history of the Oneidas, the nation had 
scarcely been touched with the contaminating influence, which the 
approach ot white settlements has every where shed upon the abo- 
riginal inhabitants of our country. As yet, the soil of a greater 
part of our county belonged to it, and the Indian lad as he pur- 
sued the deer over his native hills, could with full truth declare, 

"This is my own," — 

as well as 

" my nalive land." 

Her race of warriors and orators was notyetexlinct; and much 
as has been said of the eloquence of the Indian, I have nowhere met 
with more touching and purely elocpjrnt specimen? of Indian orato- 



ry, than those which tradition has preserved us, pronounced I7 the 

orators and chiefs of the Oneidas. Most of you will recognise 
the following introductory passage from one of Sconondoa's ad- 
dresses to his tribe at a treaty for the sale of their lands : — 

" I am an aged hemlock — the winds of an hundred winters have 
whistled through my tops and withered my branches." 

Few more striking or poetical figures are to be found in any lan- 
guage. We can see the aged chief rising to address his country- 
men ; — the form once erect, and full of health, and strength, and 
vigor, now bowed down and tottering with the effects of his " hundred 
winters," and his sightless balls vainly turned towards the sons and 
grand-sons of those with whom his youth and his manhood had been 
spent. He rises to caution them not to part with the home of 
their fathers, — the happy play-grounds of generations of 'their 
countrymen, and the graves of those who gave them birth; and 
with trembling voice he utters the words I have just repeated. 
And as the orator proceeded, and enchained the eyes and the feel- 
ings of his whole nation, who could have witnessed the scene, 
and not curse the handthatshould separate from their beloved land, 
a people so susceptible to the noblest art of all time! 

Another of the chiefs of the Oneidas, at the period of which I 
am now speaking, who is said to have been the equal of Sconondoa 
in eloquence, was a much younger man, who commonly bore the 
German soubriquet of Plattcopf. It is said that his influence in the 
nation was not so great as that of Sconondoa, though he was fre- 
quently more forcible in his pubhc addresses. A gentleman who 
was present at a council, held some years after the revolutionary 
war, by commissioners on the part of the state to treat for the pur- 
chase of a portion of the lands then reserved by the Oneidas, gives 
an account of a very effective address of this man. The council 
was held at Oneida, beneath a large pine tree which some of my 
audience may remember, as once standing on the south side of 
the turnpike at a short distance beyond the present village, and 
which tree was some years afterwards struck by lightning. For 
two days, the warriors of the nation had assembled to consult as 
to the sale, and as was customary among the Six Nations, the 
final decision was left to the squaws, who being the cultivators are 
by a very equitable rule of Indian law regarded as the proprietors 
of the soil. The whole nation, male and female had now assembled. 



andtheque.stiuii which was lo determine whether il should retain it^ 
lands or still further circumscribe its already diminished inheri- 
tance was to be settled. Plattcopf arose and addressed the mul- 
titude. He spoke of the glory of the nation, previous to the com- 
ing of Jhe white man. He said that the Oneidas were then full 
of strength and vigor and beauty. He pointed to the tree undei- 
which they stood, and which although still magnificent for its size 
and beauty, was visibly marked with age and decay. We were 
like this tree, said he. It was then young and vigorous and beau- 
tiful. It drew its nourishn.ent from the ground — the soil, and it 
was not cramped and confined ; — it could draw nourishment from 
the whole soil,— for the Oneidas owned it all ; — they had parted 
with none of their possessions. And as the tree could draw 
sustenance from the whole soil, it grew and put forth more branches 
and more leaves, and sent out new roots and implanted them 
deeper in the ground. It became strong and very beautiful : so did' 
the Oneidas. As the tree grew, the white man came, and we sold 
him a portion of our lands. A root of the tree which depended 
for its nourishment upon this land withered, for it had no soil ; and 
as it withered a branch died, and the tree lost some of its beauty. 
Again the white man came, and we sold him another piece of our 
land ; another root w ithered, and another branch died, and the tree' 
became less beautiful and less vigorous. The white man came a 
third time, and we sold him another piece of land ; — another and 
another root withered, and another and another branch fell down, 
and we now see the tree; though beautiful, it has lost its branches, 
and it no longer sends forth new roots and puts forth new branches. 
For it is cramped,— ^it has not land as it once had. 

The white man has come again, — shall we sell another piece of 
land — shall we let the tree under which our fathers sat, loose an- 
other and another root, and cause another and another branch to' 
fain 

The orator enlarged upon the figure, and extended his illus-' 
tration, frequently drawing a parallel between it and the nation, until 
every mind present was fully prepared to reject the overture for a 
treaty, and for the trme being the nation, preserved its ancient in- 
heritance. Well would it have been for the nation, if a similar re- 
sult had awaited every subsequent attempt to purchase their birth" 
right. 



9 

; Thelabors of Mr. Kirkland among this people, were, in many 
instances, attended with the desired result; and a lar^e portion of the 
nation, ultimately professed a speculative belief in the doctrines 
of Christianity, and many of them bore witness by well ordered 
lives to the sincerity of their profession of that belief which is of 
the heart. Among the latter number, was the venerable Sconon- 
doa, who for many years after the death of his spiritual father, 
waited with a christian composure, and even with a wish to depart, 
for the summons which should call him to meet him in the pres- 
ence of iheir common Lord and Master. The strength of the 
attnchment of this aged chief to his friend and guide to the pure 
faith of the gospel, may be inferred from his dying injunction, that 
his remains should be laid beside those of his christian father, that 
in the resurrection morn they might together waken at the sound of 
the archangel's trumpet, to meet their Saviour coming to judgment. 
The request was regarded, and the missionary and his disciple sleep 
together in the narrow house. 

Shortly after the peace, the attentiqn of individuals in Connecli- 
cutand Massachusetts was called to this vicini'y, as a promising 
field for emigration. In the summer of the year 17S4, Judge 
White, the first New England settler, wi«:h his sons, arrived at 
Whitestowo, from Middletovvn, Conn., and erected a dwelling 
house. The next year he was joined by a number of settlers, and 
the name of Whitestown, very soon became known throughout New 
England, to designate the whole region lying near the central por- 
tion of the State. In the year 1786, the village of Clinton was 
settled by a colony of 20 families, and the tide of emigration in- 
creased from year to year, occupying neighborhoods in almost all 
parts of the present county of Oneida. I have already mention- 
ed, that the state in remuneration to Mr. Kirkland for his services 
during the revolutionary war conferred upon him a valuable tract of 
land. This took place in the year 1788, and shortly after and 
about the year 1791, he conceived the project of establishing a semi- 
nary, which should prove a blessing alike to the people to whom 
he had given himself to be a teacher and a guide, and to the sons 
of his countrymen who were rapidly establishing themselves here, 
and converting the wilderness into the homes of civilzation. The 
land granted to him by the State, furnished a suitable place as he 

ibelieved, for the site of such an institution. This tract was bounds 

2 



10 

ed on one side upon the !me of property, as it was then called, be- 
ing the boundary between ttie Indian reservation and the land 
ceded to the white men. Situated thus at the threshold of the In- 
dian territory, he looked upon it as just the point where the youth 
fresh tVom the schools of the white man, should meet the sons of 
the forest, and together unroll the book of knowledge. 

At this distance of time, esnd with the knowledge of the changes' 
which have taken place in the circumstances by the light of which 
he then viewed it, it is impossible for us to fail to admire the whole 
project as he prepared it for operation. "Who could then believe, 
that a single generation would have hardly passed away, before the 
Oneidas, starting as it seemed from a savage state to that of a 
civilized and christian community, would have withered before the 
vices of civilization, ere its virtues had found a resting place among 
them, and that their story would have furi>ished so short and so 
mournful a page in the book of time, as has been written for them? 
And the philanthropist of that day might well hope that the foun- 
dation of such an institution would from age to age shed abroad 
healthful influences upon both races, and become a perpetual bond 
of brotherhood between the white and the red man. 

With these views, Mr. Kirkland gave himself up to the project,, 
expending his time and the means which Providence had placed 
in his hands, with unsparing zeal for its promotion. Through his 
exertions, a charter of incorporation was obtained for the institution, 
in 1793, under the name of the Hamilton Oneida Academy, and 
a fund raised in order to commence the erection of a suitable build- 
ing for its operations. In 1794, the building which, after the eleva- 
tion of the seminary to the rank of a college with the style of Hamil- 
ton College, for many years continued to be known as Oneida Hall, 
was raised and partially finished under the [superintendence of 
our townsman Apollos Cooper. As soon as the requisite means 
could be obtained it was completed, and officers of instruction ap 
pointed, who at once established for it a character antwng the first 
in rank of the academies in the State. The fostering care of its 
founder never flagged in efforts to improve its condition and in- 
crease its usefulness, and prepare the way for its elevation to the 
rank of a college, which from its inception he had contemplated. 
And most deeply is this whole community indebted to him, for the 
blessings it has already dispensed upon the population of our land. 



11 

And I may liefe remark, t%at whatever change the experience of th« 
last twenty-five years may have dictated, as an improvement in the 
location ofaoollege for the central portion of New York, under its 
|)resent circumstances, and prospects for the futuivs, yet during the 
jife-time of its founder, there was no •circu«istance existing, which 
•svould have justified the preference of another location, or indu'ced 
i!the belief, that the utility of the institution would be increased oV pro- 
<moted by its establishment upon a different site. His first object, 
?to render it a seminary for the iiidian as well as the white youth, 
j-equired its establishment upon the frontier ground it occui)ied ; and 
when yielding to the white man's oflfers, the sons of the forest re- 
:tr«ated froM the boundaries of iheir then territoiy., the local im- 
porlance of no one of the existing villages in the vicinity was so 
much in advance of Clinton, as to warrant the beilief, that it fur- 
nished a more desirable place for its operations. The death of M r. 
ijirkland occurred in the spriaig of the year ISOS, The place he 
■GGCupied in the early history of Oneida County w^s most impor- 
itant, and one wli;i«h will continue ia exert an influence tlirough 
all time. Jefferson desired that upon Ids tomb might fee inscribed, 
** The founder of the University of Virginia." He could exult as 
he foresaw the day when the splendor of her halls and the mag- 
nificence of her appointments, wouJd reflect lustre upon the name 
•of even the author of the Declaration of Independence, and with a 
pardonable vanity, he desired to secure for it the glory. But the 
founder of Hamilton College, had a purer motive to actuate him in 
his enterprise. 'He asked no monument which should remind 
ihe careless of the Indian missionary, and keep his name fresh 
tiefore the public gaze. He sought to establish a school to diffuse 
the blessings of learning, and the arts, and religion, upon the be- 
nighted son of the forest, as well as the youth from a more fortu- 
nate home ; to open a well-spring of knowledge, where the humble as 
well as the lofty might quench their thirst for wisdom ; and he little 
heeded what should be thought of the agent who effected the end. 
His name, no marble claimed to give to it its short-lived immortal- 
ity, — no brass transmitted for another age to admire. And though 
in honor of its early friend, the town of his adoption now bears his 
name, many a year had his ashes slept in the cold bosom of the 
earth, before this simple yet affectionate tribute was paid to the 
memory of the apostle and benefactor of Oneida county. 



12 

Another name distinguished in the history of Oneida county, and^ 
occupying no obscure phice in the catalogue of American patriots, 
is that of the late James Dean. The history of this individual and 
his agency in many of the events transpiring previous to and during 
the revolutionary war, would form a volume of deeply interesting and 
most thrilling incidents. A native of New England, and the child 
of religious parents, at the early age of eleven years, at the solici- 
tation Of. a connexion of his father's family, who as a clergyman 
had been engarred in the business of Indian missions, his paients, 
like the mother of Samuel, devoted him "to the service of the tem- 
ple, as a herald of the Cross to the sons of the forest. In order to * 
prepare their child for the peculiar duties he would be called upon 
to perform, by the advice of the relative I have mentioned, they 
concluded to send him even then in his early youth, to become ac- 
quainted with the Indian language and habits, and manners, and to 
grow up among and in contact with those among whom they in- 
tended his life should be spent. At this time, a branch of the Onei- 
das resided at a settlement called Onaquaga, situated on the Sus- 
quehanna, and to this place young Dean was sent to become a 
denizen of the forest. A missionary occasionally visited the 
post, and. to him the early education of the subject of our notice, 
in the arts and letters of civilized life, was entrusted, while he was 
acquiring^ with every day's growth, the accomplishments which go 
to make up the thorough-bred native of the wilderness. Kere he 
continued until he arrived at a suitable age to enterDartmouth Col- 
lege, with which institution very shortly after it received its charter 
he connected himself. He here completed his under graduate 
course in 1773, and was graduated in the third class which re- 
ceived its honors at that institution. Previous to his graduation, he 
accompanied a friend, the Rev. Sylvanus Ripley, afterwards the 
first professor of divinity of the college, on a mission to the Indians 
residing at Penobscot and on the Bay of Fundy. In a publication 
of the first president Whelock, printed at Hartford in 1773, he is 
spoken of in the following manner: — 

" Mr. Dean has now finished his course of studies here, and 
" upon finding, as I have already mentioned, that he may, with little 
" expense, be able to preach to the Kurons freely in their own 
'•tongue, has determined, if God please, when he has perfected 
♦'himself in the French tongue, to enteton a mission, and with- a 



13 

** proper companion, preach as an itinerant, not only to the Six Na- 
*' tions, (with whom he lived many years from his youth,) but to 
*' the tribes that can understand him to a thousand miles, if such 
*' there are at that distance." 

Such were the views and intentions with which he received his 
bachelor's diploma, and he accordingly commenced studies in the- 
ology, and continued them for several months, when he was regu- 
larly licensed as a preacher of the gospel, though, owing to the 
circumstances which afterwards gave a change to his pursuits, he 
never was ordained to the sacred office. 

It will be recollected, that the period at which I have now arrived, 
was that of the commencement of the troubles which preceded the 
war of the Revolution, The odious duty upon tea was exciting in 
America the deepest feeling of opposition to the administration of 
affairs in the mother country, and resolutions of resistance to its 
execution, amounting to open rebellion, were publicly passed in the 
popular assemblies held in every colony. The opposition to the 
entrance of ships bearing cargoes of tea into New York, Phila- 
delphia and most of the ports of the colonies, the destruction of 
the tea in Boston harbor in the winter of '73 — '74, and the meas- 
ures of the government thereupon in the passage of the bill shutting 
up the port of Boston, as a punishment for the insult to the royal 
authority ; the act of parliament altering, the whole form of govern- 
ment in Massachusetts, and authorising the removal of persons ac- 
cused of murder or of any capital offence in aidingtheenforcement 
of these laws by the magistracy, to the. mother country for. trial, 
early in the year 1774 had increased the feeling of excitement 
which pervaded all the colonies., and rendered universal the belief 
that a crisis was approaching, in which it would become necessary 
for all the colonies to defend their rights with strong arm. At this 
period, when the first continental Congress was assembling atPhii- 
adelphia, and the leading citizens of each colony were endeavoring 
to ascertain the sentiments of all classes of people relative to the 
contest that was portending, the peculiar talents and qualifications 
which his education had afforded him, recommended the subject of 
our notice to the continental authorities, as a suitable person to as- 
certain tho feeling of the Indians in New York and Canada, and 
the part they would probably take in the event of a war with the 
mother country. In order to disguise the object of his mission, it 



14 

•was arranged that he should assume the business of an Indian tra- 
<]er, and he was accordingly furnished with such goods as were 
then carried into the Indian country by that class of persons, and 
with letters, bills ^f parcels and other documents from a well known 
house at Boston at that time engaged in the traffic, in order to au- 
thenticate his assumed character. Thus prepared, he set out upon 
an expedition to visit the Six Nations, and the various branches of 
the different tribes composing them, or connected with them living 
in Canada. In the course of his travels in Lower Canada, he was 
arrested by the British authorities as a spy, and carried to Quebec ; 
but by a prudent and careful bearing of himself, aided by the papers 
which he carried, he was discharged and returned home, having 
successfully accomplished the object of his mission. As the troub- 
les increased in the colonies, his services became of great impor- 
tance to the country, in order to conciliate the Indian tribes, and as 
a means of communication with them. An adopted son of the 
Oneidas, educated in all their habits and customs, and skilled, more- 
over, in all the white man's knowledge, the nation regarded him 
with more than parental affection, and to the regard which they en- 
tertained for him and their religious teacher, Mr. Kirkland, may be 
wholly attributed their friendship for the colonists, while most of the 
other portions of the Six Nations adhered to the arms of the mother 
country. On the final outbreak of hostilities in 1775, and the as- 
signment of the command of the northwestern frontier of New York 
lo General Schuyler, Mr. Dean was appointed to the office of In- 
dian Agent, with the staff" rank of major in the army, and during the 
whole war of the revolution he continued his services to the country 
in that capacity. For most of the time, his duties were performed 
in the neighborhood of the Oneidas. A very considerable portion 
of the war he was stationed at Fort Stanwix, the site of the present 
village of Rome, and by virtue of his office, superintended the inter- 
course with the Indians, and the obtaining of all information through 
them. By means of an Indian scout in his employment, known to 
the early settlers of the county, and indeed remembered by the wri- 
ter as Saucy JVick, he obtained information of the very hour that the 
attack was to be made upon Cherry Valley, previous to the massa- 
cre at that ill-fated settlement, and in sufficient time to have Colonel 
Alden, the commander of the post, apprised of it. The intelligence 
was transmitted to him through the commandant of the garrison at 



15 

'y'ort Stanwix, but the ill-fated Alden, disregarding the news and 
sneering at it as an Indian humbug, permitted the inhabitants of the 
settlement peacefully and unalarmed and unprotected to retire to 
rest on the night of the attack, and before the morning, paid with 
his own life, and the lives of those he was placed to protect, the 
price of his rash incredulity. 

The siege of Fort Stanwix, and the battle of Oriskany, occurred' 
during an absence of Mr. Dean down the Mohawk. On his re- 
turn with the brigade commanded by General Arnold intended for 
the relief of the garrison, he passed the battle ground, still strewn 
with the corses of those who had fallen in the conflict, blackenino- 
unburied where they fell. The brigade paused and performed the 
last sad office to their compatriots, and when the earth had received 
their remains, proceeded to its destination. The subject of our 
notice subsequently was attached to the expedition of Gen. Sulli- 
van in the western part of Nevv York, and was present at the battle 
at Newtown — now Elmira. A manuscript journal and narrative of 
this expedition, prepared by him with great care, was for many years 
preserved by his family, but has unfortunately been destroyed. 
The information it contained would have been extremely valuable, 
and serve to throw much light upon the manners and condition of 
the Six Nations a<t that'period. At the close of the war, the Onei- 
das granted him a tract of land two miles square, lying on the Wood 
Creek west of Rome, to which he removed in 1784 and com- 
menced its improvement. He here continued two years, when he 
effected an exchange with the nation for the tract of land lying in 
Westmoreland, known as Dean's Patent, and removed to his late 
residence upon it in 1786, where he continued to reside until his 
death. Upon the cession to the State in 1788, of the lands lying 
outside of the line of property as it is called, the State, in view of 
his meritorious services during the war, confirmed the grant to him 
by patent, under which a portion of the land is held by his family at 
the present day. 

Two or three years after the removal of Mr. Dean from Wood 
Creek to the latter place, an incident occurred which furnishes a^ 
parallel to the rescue of Captain Smith by Pocahontas in the early 
days of Virginia. An institution existed among the Indians for the 
punishment of a murderer, answering in some respects to the Jew- 
ish code. It became the duty of the nearest relative of the de- 



16 . 

ceased to pursue him, and avenge his brother's death. In cftse 
the murder was perpetrated by a member of a different tribe, the 
offence demanded that the tribe of the murdered man should re- 
quire the blood of some member of the offending tribe. This was 
regarded as a necessary atonement, and as absoJutely requisite to 
the happiness of the deceased in the world of spirits, and a religious 
duty, and not as a mere matter of vengeful gratification. At the 
period to which I have referred, an Indian had been murdered by 
some unknown white man, who had escaped. The chiefs there- 
upon held a consultation at Oneida to determine what was to be 
done. Their deliberations were held in secret, but through the 
friendship of one of the number, Mr. Dean was advisedof what was 
going on. From the office that he had held, and the high standing 
he maintained among the white men, it was urged in the council 
that he was the proper person to sacrifice in atonement for the of- 
fence committed. The question was, however, a very difficult one 
to dispose of. He had been adopted in<o the tribe, and was held 
to be a son, and it was argued by many of the chiefs that he could 
now be no more responsible for the offence than one of the natives 
of the tribe, and that his sacrifice would not furnish the proper atone- 
ment. For several days the matter was debated and no decision 
was arrived at. While it was undetermined, he continued to hope 
for the best, and his friendly informant kept him constahtly advised 
of all that was done. At first he reflected upon the propriety of his 
leaving the country and escaping from the danger. But his cir- 
cuiinstances, together with the hope 6f a favorable issue of the ques- 
tion in the council, induced him to remain. He had erected a small 
house which he was occupying with his wife and two children, one 
an infant, and it was idle to think of removing them without ex- 
citing observation and perhaps causing a sacrifice of all. As 
the council continued its session for several days, his hopes 
of a favorable decision brightened. He however kept the whole 
matter to himself, not even mentioning it to his wife, and pre- 
pared himself for any emergency which might befall him. One 
night after he had retired to bed, he was awoke by the sound of the 
death whoop, at a short distance froih his house. He then for the 
first time conlmunicatcd to his wife his fertrs that a party were ap- 
proaching to take his life. He enjoined it upon her to remain quiet 
Vith her children in the room where they slept, while he would re» 



17 

iieive the council in an adjoining one and endeavor to avert their 
determination, trusting to Providence for the result. He mjl the 
Indians at the door, and seated them in the outer room. There 
were eighteen, and ail chiefs or head men of tlie nation. The sen- 
ior chief informed him that they had come to sacrifice him foi; the 
murder of their brother, and that he must now prepare to die. He 
replied to them at length, claiming that he was an adopted son of 
the Oneidas ; that it was unjust to require his blood for the 
wrong committed by a wicked white man ; that he was not ready to 
die, and that he could not leave his wife and children unprovided for. 
The council listened to him with profound gravity and attention, 
and when he sat down, one of the chiefs replied to him» He re- 
joined, and used every argument his ingenuity could devise in or- 
der to reverse their sentence. The debate continued a long time, 
and the hope of escape grew fainter and fainter as it proceeded. 
At length he had nearly abandoned himself to the doom they had 
resolved upon, when he heard the pattering of a footstep without 
the door. All eyes were fixed upon the door. It opened and a 
squaw entered. She was the wife of the senior chief, and at the 
time of Mr. Dean's adoption into the tribe in his boyhood, she had 
taken him as her son. The entrance of a woman into a solemn 
council, was, by Indian etiquette, at war with all propriety. She, 
however, took her place near the door, and all looked on in silence* 
A moment after, another footstep was heard, and another Indian 
woman entered the council. This was a sister of the former, and 
she too was the wife of a chief then present. Another pause en- 
sued, and a third entered. Each of the three stood wrapped close- 
ly in her blanket, but said nothing. At length the presiding chief 
addressed them, telling them to begone and leave the chiefs to go 
on with their business. The wife replied, that the council must 
change their determination and let the good white man — their friend 
— ^her own adopted son, alone. The command to be gone was re-: 
peated, when each of the Indian women threw off her blanket and 
showed a knife in her extended hand, and declared that if one hair 
of the white man's head was touched, they would each bury their 
knives in their own heart's blood. The strangeness of the whole 
scene overwhelmed with amazement each member of the council, 
and recardint; the unheard-of resolution of the women to interfere 
in the matter as a sort of manifestation of the will of the Great Spirit 
3 



18 

that the white man's life should not be taken, their previous decree 
was reversed on the spot, and the life of their victim preserved. 
Shortly after the erection of the county of Herkimer in 1791, Mr, 
Dean was appointed a judge of the county courts, in which office he 
was continued until the erection of the county of Oneida, when he 
was appointed to a similar station in this county, and retained the of- 
fice by successive appointments, and occasionally served as a mem- 
ber of the stale legislature, until the year 1813, when he retired from 
public life, and devoted his remaining days to the enjoyment of do- 
mestic quiet, and a preparation for the time of his departure. This 
event took place in September, 1832. 

The lives of few men present more claims to the affection, respect 
and veneration of their countrymen than that of Judge Dean. From 
the circumstances of his youth and education, calculated to exercise 
a most useful and important part in his country's service, he was 
early called to act in emergencies requiring the display of great 
wisdom, strong fortitude and sincere and devoted patriotism, in all 
of which he showed himself equal to the demand. As a citizen, 
his amiable deportment, his benevolence and his unwavering integ- 
rity, endeared him to all who knew him. As a magistrate and le- 
gislator, his strong and well balanced mind, well stored with sound 
learning and the wisdom which is begotten of experience and ex- 
tensive observation, commanded universal respect within the sphere 
in which he moved. 

In connection with the sketches I have given of the characters of 
the Rev. Mr. Kirkland and Judge Dean, I propose lo notice the 
siege of Fort Stanwix and the battle of Oriskany, — events which 
have made the soil of Oneida classic ground, and which hold an 
important place in the history of the American Revolution. I will 
detain you for a (ew moments upon the subject, and then close my 
remarks for this evening. 

Fort Stanwix was originally erected in the year 1758, during 
the French war, as it is commonly called. It occupied a position 
commanding the carrying place between the navigable waters of 
the Mohawk and Wood Creek, and was regarded as the key tothp 
communication between Canada and the settlements on the Mo- 
hawk. It was originally a square Fort, having four bastions sur- 
rounded by a broad and deep ditch, with a covert way and glacis. 
In the centre of the ditch a row of perpendicular pickets was planted 



19 

and another horizontal row fixed around the ramparts. After the 
French war, the fortification had been permitted to go into decay ; 
and at the commencement of hostihties with the mother country, it 
needed thorough repairs in order to make it useful for the pur- 
poses intended. Upon Gen. Schuyler being ordered to the com- 
mand of the northwestern frontier, he placed Col. Gansevoort in 
command of the tort with a small garrison, and commenced the 
work of placing the fortification in a situation for resistance. Early 
in the summer of the year 1777, the enemy's plan of the northern 
campaign against the revolutionary forces became understood, and 
the necessity of preventing its successful issue most deeply felt. 
The plan contemplated the complete subjugation of New York, by 
a combination of movements in three different directions, in the 
hope that by severing New England from the other States, a more 
easy victory would be afforded to the royal arms. In order to do 
this, General Burgoyne was to descend from Montreal by way of 
Lake Champlain, and force his way to Albany. In the mean time, 
a detachment of the invading forces under the command of Colonel 
St. Leger, consisting of 200 British troops and a regiment of loy- 
alists under Sir John Johnson, together with a large body of Indians 
in the employment of the royal government, were to pass up the St. 
Lawrence to Lake Ontario, and by the way of Oswego, Oneida 
Lake and Wood Creek, obtain possession of Fort Stanwix, and 
passing down the Mohawk, form a junction with the main army at 
Albany. The combined force was then to proceed onward to meet 
Sir Henry Clinton, who was to press up the Hudson River, with 
the forces under his command, and occirpy t\\ the fortresses upon 
its banks. As early as the 3d of July, (1777) it became apparent 
to the garrison at Fort Stanwix that hostile Indians were prowling 
about the fort. Precautions were taken to render the fortifications 
as secure as possible, and on the first day of August every thing 
was in a fit state of preparation for the enemy. There were, never- 
theless, as yet, two things most essential in the defence of a forti- 
fication to be supplied — ammunition and provisions. An express, 
however, arrived in the camp on that day, bringing notice that a 
supply of these articles was approaching in batteaus accompanied . 
by a guard of 200 men. The supplies arrived on the second of 
August in the afternoon, and while the last boat was unlading the 
enemy made his appearance near the landing place. The garrison 



20 

now consisted of seven hundred and fifty men ; and an examina- 
tion of their stores showed Ihat their provisions and annrnunition 
would permit them to hold out six weeks, by husbanding well their 
resources, and firing but nine cannon per day. A demand of sur- 
render was now made by the British commanding officer, and in- 
dignantly refused by the garrison. The siege then commenced with 
great activity on the part of the enemy. Upon hearing of the in- 
vestment of the fort, General Herkimer, [Hercheimer] who then 
commanded the militia of Tryon county, (as the whole territory af- 
terwards known as Montgomery county, and including all the State 
west of Schenectady county, was then called,) collected a force of 
about eight hundred militia from the Dutch and German settle- 
ments below this, and started with them to the relief of the besieged. 
On the evening of the 5th of August, General Herkimer arrived at 
the Oriskany creek, and sent two expresses with letters to Colonel 
Gansevoort, informing him of his approach and where he then was, 
and desiring cannon to be fired to inform him of the safe arrival of 
his expresses. H.e also requested that a sally might be made im- 
mediately on their arrival, to effect a diversion of the enemy's for- 
ces, in order to favor his approach to the fort. The expresses ar- 
rived safely in camp on the forenoon of the 6th, about eleven 
o'clock. The cannoil were immediately fired as a signal to Gen. 
Herkimer, and a force of two hundred and fifty men with a piece of 
artillery detailed under Colonel Willett. the second in command, to 
make a sally. A thunder shower, of which I shall again have oc- 
casion to speak, coming up, detained it for an hour. The sally 
from the foit was most fortunate. The camps of Sir John John- 
son and of the Indians were taken, their owners put to flight, and 
the whole camp equippage, clothing, blankets and stores, the offi- 
cer's baggage, memoranda and papers, together with five British 
flags secured and carried into the fort, and all without the loss of a 
single man. The British flag were immediately displayed beneath 
the American ensign as trophies of the victory. 

Not so fortunate, however, was the fate of the gallant band 
marching to the relief of their countrymen. Colonel St. Leger 
learning of their approach, detached a portion of the force under 
bis command with a party of Indians to lio in ambush and intercept 
them. The path then leading from Oriskany to the fort passed the 
gvilph which constitutes the present boundary of Rome, at the dis- 



21 

lance of twenty or thirty rods north of the present road to Rome at 
that point. The ambuscade commenced in this gulph, and the en- 
emy were lying concealed on both sides of the path for some 
distance above it. On the morning of the sixth, General Herkimer, 
after waiting until about S o'clock, and hearing no discharge of can- 
non from the fort, supposed his express might not have succeeded 
in reaching it, and proceeded with his command. The column 
consisting wholly of militia men, and not expecting an immediate 
attack, entered the ambuscade in open order and unprepared for 
action, and nearly half of the whole body had passed the gulph, 
when the Indian war whoop became the signal of attack, and one 
of the most bloody conflicts of modern times ensued. The attack 
was general and from every quarter. Thrown into confusion at 
the onset, and without the habits of military discipline, necessary to 
enable them to rally in the fury of the strife, a portion of the mihtia 
who had not reached the ambuscade fled, while with the remainder 
the action became a melee of single contests, the militia forming a 
circle around their leader, and maintaining their ground, and gal- 
lantly resisting the attack, until the violent shower of which I have 
spoken commenced, when the enemy withdrew to his camp. In 
the contest, one hundred and sixty militia men fell dead on the field, 
and a very large number were wounded and removed by the survi- 
vors to Herkimer. Among the number of the wounded was Gen- 
eral Herkimer. He received a bullet about six inches below his 
knee, which splintered the bone. His leg was afterwards ampu- 
tated, and it is supposed that he might have recovered, but in the 
inflammation ensuing upon the amputation, he became delirious, 
and tore the bandages from the leg and in consequence bled to 
death. 

After the unsuccessful issue of the attempt to relieve the besie- 
ged, Colonel St. Leger again sent a flag of truce with a demand to 
the garrison to surrender, promising protection in case the sum- 
mons should be complied with, and threatening the fury of his sav- 
age allies in case it was refused. The demand was spurned at and 
the investing army defied. It was then deemed advisable to at- 
tempt a communication with the settlements and the procuring of a 
reinforcement, and Colonel Willet and Lieutenant Stockwell of the 
garrison, volunteered to go on the hazardous expedition. They 
left the fort on the evening of the lOlh of August, and succeeded bv 



22 

a most fatiguing and perilous march through the country lying seven 
or eight miles northward of the Mohawk, in reaching the German 
settlements at Herkimer. They there learned that Gen. Learned had 
received orders to repair, with a brigade of Massachusetts troops 
from the vicinity of the Cahoes, to meet General Arnold with an- 
other force, and together proceed, under the command of Arnold, 
to the relief of the garrison. On hearing of the approach of Ar- 
nold with his force, the Indians co-operating with Colonel St. 
Leger became dissatisfied, and threatened to leave. At this junc- 
ture, a tory (Tost Schuyler) who had been taken prisoner, and who 
could speak the Indian language, was released upon condition that 
he should go among the Indians and represent the force of the re- 
lieving army. To secure his fidelity his brother was detained as a 
hostage, with' a threat that he should be hung in case Tost was 
treacherous. The intelligence of Schuyler produced in them gen- 
eral distrust and alarm, and General St. Leger, on the 22d of August, 
after having vigilantly and energetically prosecuted the siege for 
twenty days, was forced to raise it and retreat to Oswego. The 
result so creditable to the garrison and the officers conducting it, was 
also productive of most important consequences, whether we regard 
it as saving the settlements on the Mohawk from the savages of a 
ruthless and vindictive enemy, or in its effect upon the public senti- 
ment here and in the mother country. " Nothing," says the British 
Annual Register for 1777, " could have been more untoward in the 
present situation of affairs than the unfortunate issue of this expedi- 
tion. The Americans represented this and the affair at Benning- 
ton as great and glorious victories. Nothing could exceed their 
exultation and confidence. Gansevoort and Willet, with Starke and 
Warner,(heroes of Bennington) were ranked among those who were 
considered the saviours of their country." 



LECTURE II. 

In continuing the subject with which I occupied your attention 
in my former lecture, I will next introduce to your notice an individ- 
ual, who, although not an inhabitant of Oneida county, deserves 
from its chronicler more than a passing notice. I speak of Hein 
rich Staring, for many years First Judge of Herkimer county while 
it comprehended within its limits the present county of Oneida, and 
the first individual who held that office. In his case have the 
words of the great master of dramatic poetry been signally verified : 

" The evil that men do, hves after thein ; 

" The good, is oft interrei with their bones." 

Although for many years occupying most important public stations, 
and exercising an influence most salutary during an eventful period 
of our national history, little is known of him by the present gene- 
ration, save the anecdotes which the lovers of fun of his day chose 
to invent and circulate in ridicule of his peculiarities. Heinrich 
Staring was a native of the Mohawk Valley, and was born about 
eleven miles below this city, very early after the settlement of the 
German Flatts. Little is now known of his early history. At the 
commencement of the Revolutionary War, we find him a militia of- 
ficer, and regarded by the royal party as a most important and 
influential personage in his neighborhood. He was present at the 
battle of Oriskany, and from that period held the office of colonel 
of the Tryon county militia during the remainder of the war. Pos- 
sessing great shrewdness, strong common sense, and unflinching 
intrepidity, he enjoyed the unlimited confidence of the German and 
Dutch settlers on the Mohawk, and became a prominent object for 
seizure by the enemy. A great number of anecdotes illustrative of 
the extraordinary means that were used by the enemy he had to 
deal with to procure his person or destroy him, might be related. 
My plan for this evening, however, will permit me to give you but 
a single one. The story was told my informant from the lips of the 
old man several years after the war. The event took place some 



24 

time late in November, and about the year 1778 or 1779. He had, 
for some purpose, gone into the woods at some distance from his 
home, and while there, by chance, cam? f-tiddenly upon a p -rty of 
hoslil-i Indians, who, during those years, were frequently prowling; 
about the settlements on the Mohawk, and occasionally making 
murderous incursions among the inhabitants. Before he became 
fully aware of their presence he had got so completely in their powei 
that flight or resistance were out of the question. He was seized 
with every demonstration of hellish delight, and rapidly hurried 
away in a contrary direction from his home and southward of the 
Mohawk, until his captors supposed themselves out of the reach 
of pursuit, when they directed their march westward, and at night 
reached a small uninhabited wigwam at a little more than a quar- 
ter of a mile from the right bank of the Oriskany Creek, above 
Clinton, in what is now called Brothertown. This wigwam con- 
sisted of two rooms, separated from each other by a partition of logs. 
Into the larger of these there opened an outside door which fur- 
nished the only entrance to the house. Another door communicated 
from the larger to the smaller room. The latter had one window, 
a small square hole of less than a foot high by about two feet wide, 
nlaced nearly six feet above the floor. The whole structure was 
of logs, substantially built. The Indians examined the smaller 
room, and concluded that by securely fastening their prisoner hand 
and foot, they could safely keep him there until morning. They 
therefore bound his hands behind him with withes, and then fastened 
his ancles together in the same manner, and laid him thus bound in 
the small room, while they built a fire in the larger one, and com- 
menced a consultation concerning the disposition of him. Staring, 
though unable to speak the Indian language, was sufKciently ac- 
quainted with it to understand their deliberations, and he lay listen- 
ing intently to their conversation. The whole party were unani- 
mous in the decision that he must be put to death, but the manner 
of doinf this in the way best calculated to make the white warrior 
cry like a cowardly squaw, was a question of high importance, and' 
one which it required a good deal of deliberation to settle satisfac- 
torily to all his captors. At length, however, it was agreed that he 
should be burned alive on the following morning, and preparations 
vere accordingly made for the diabolical sports of a savage auto da 
fe. During the deliberation) the horrible fate that awaited him sug- 



2!5 

gesled to Colonel Staring the question of the possibihly of atl 
escape. As he lay on the ground in the wigwam, he could see the 
window I have spoken of, and he determined to make an efiort to 
release himself from the withes which bound him, and endeavor to 
effect a passage through it without alarming his savage keepers. 
Before they had sunk to rest, he had so far succeeded as to release 
one of his hands from its t'astenings sufficiently to enable him to 
slip his wrist from it. On finding that he could do this, he feigned 
sleep ; and when the Indians came in to examine and see if all was 
safe, they retired exulting with a tiend-like sneer, that their victim 
was sleeping his last sleep. They then all laid down on the ground 
in the larger room, to go to sleep. Staring waited until all had for 
a long time become quiet, when, slipping his hand from the withes, 
he was enabled silently to release his ancles, and by climbing up 
the side of the house by the aid of the logs, to escape from the 
window without creating an alarm. In the attempt, and while re- 
leasing his ancles from the withes, he had necessarily taken off his 
shoes, and had forgotten to secure them with him. He was now 
outside of the wigwam, barefoot, at a distance of five and twenty 
miles from his home, without a guide or a path, hungry, and in a 
frosty night in November, and with a band of enemies seeking his 
heart's blood lying ready to spring upon him. But he was once 
more free from their clench, and this one thought was nerve, and 
strength and food — was all he needed to call into action his every 
power. He stole with cautious silence from the wigwam, directing 
his course toward the creek, and increasing his gait as he left his 
captors and got beyond the danger of alarming them. He had 
got about half way to the creek, and had begun to flatter himself 
that his whole escape was accomplished, when he heard a shout - 
from the wigwam, and immediately the bark of the Indian dogs in 
pursuit. He then plunged on at the top of his speed, and knowing 
that while on the land, the dogs would follow on his track, in order 
to baffle their pursuit, as soon as he reached the creek, he jumped 
in, and ran down stream in the channel. For some time he heard 
the shouts of his late masters, and the baying of their hounds in the 
pursuit ; and now that he had reached the water where their dogs 
could not track him, he laughed out-right as he ran, in thinking of 
the disappointment they would feel when they arrived at the bank. 
The fear of the faggot and all its accompanying tortures, furnished 
4 



26 

a stimulus to every muscle, and he urged on his flight until he heard 
no more of his enemies, and became satisfied that they had given 
up their pursuit. He deemed it prudent, however, to continue his 
course in the bed of the creek, until he should reach a path which 
led from Oneida to old Fort Schuyler — a mud fort, built on the 
present site of this city during the French war, and which was sit- 
uated between Main street and the banks of the river, a little east- 
ward of Second street. The path crossed the Oriskany about half 
a mile westward of where the village of Clinton now stands. He 
then took this path and pursued his course. I have mentioned that 
in his haste to escape, he forgot his shoes. He had on a pair of 
wool stockings, but in running on the gravel in the creek, they soon 
became worn out, and the sharp pebbles cut his feet. In this dif- 
ficulty he bethought him of a substitute for shoes, in the coat he 
wore, which, fortunately, was made of a thick heavy serge. He 
cut off the sleeves of this at his elbows, and drew them upon his 
feet, and thus protected them from injury. But he used to say he 
soon found this was robbing Peter to pay Paul, for in the severity 
of the night, his arms became chilled and almost frozen. He 
reached the landing at this place just in the gray dawn of the morn- 
ing, and cautiously reconnoiteringin order to ascertain whether any 
one was in the fort, which was frequently used as a camp ground, 
he satisfied himself that no one was in the neighborhood. In do- 
ing this he fortunately discovered a canoe which had floated down 
the stream and lodged in the willows which grew on the edge of the 
bank. He instantly took possession of it, and by a vigorous use 
of the paddles, with the aid of the current, succeeded in reaching 
his home with his little bark in the middle of the forenoon. 

In my former lecture, I mentioned the fact that the whole of the 
State westward of a line drawn through the western boundary of 
Schenectady county, previous to and during the revolutionary war, 
constituted the county of Tryon, being named in honor of Governor 
Tryon, the last colonial Governor of New York. The name of a 
royalist, however, sounding harsh to American ears, immediately 
after the war, the legislature, by an act passed in April, 1784, 
changed its name to Montgomery, in honor of the memory of Gen. 
Richard Montgomery, who fell in the attack on Quebec. The 
county continued to retain all its territory until in 1789, when the 
emigration from the older parts of the country had so increased 



27 

the population in the western portion of the State, that the county of 
Ontario was erected, comprehending all the territory lying west of 
a line drawn from the southeast corner of the present county of 
Seneca northward to the Lake Ontario. 

On the 16th of February, 1791, the county of Montgomery was 
still further divided, and the counties of Tioga, Otsego and Herki- 
mer formed ; the county of Herkimer, comprising all the territory 
lying between the present counties of Montgomery and Oswego 
on the east, and the Cayuga Lake on the west, and bounded north- 
erly and southerly by the north and south boundaries of the State. 
By the act erecting the county it was provided, that a court of com- 
mon pleas and general sessions should be held in the county twice 
in each year, and at the Church in Herkimer, until other legislative 
provisions should be made concerning the matter. Another pro- 
vision of this act seems, to the observer of the present day, very re- 
markable, and shows as strikingly as any other fact, the rapidity 
with which our country has sprung from its first beginnings to its 
present condition. It was enacted, that it should not be the duty 
of the Justices of the Supreme Court to hold a Circuit Court once 
in each year, in either of the three new counties then formed, unless 
in their judgment, they should deem it proper and necessary. No 
court in a territory now constituting the greater portion of four ju- 
dicial circuits, and furnishing sufHcient business for sixty circuit 
courts in each year, besides nearly one hundred and twenty terms 
of courts of common pleas, and sixteen of the court of chancery! 

In organizing the court of common pleas for Herkimer county, 
Colonel Staring was appointed its first Judge. It is not supposed 
nor pretended, that any peculiar qualifications or fitness for the of- 
fice, recommended him for the appointment. His honest and 
strong, but uncultivated mind, had never been schooled to threading 
the mazes of legal science ; and indeed, he had enjoyed few of 
even the most common advantages of education. But he pos- 
sessed the confidence of his fellow citizens for his sterling integ- 
rity, strong common sense, and tried and approved patriotism ; 
and these qualifications were regarded by the venerable George 
Clinton, then Governor of the State, as sufficient to warrant his ap- 
pointment to the ofl[ice ; and in forming our opinion of the appoint- 
ment, we should take into consideration the fact, that at that period 
in the history of this State, there was scarcely to be found a court 



28 

of common pleas which could boast a lawyer in its catalogue of 
judges. The judges of these tribunals were almost without ex- 
ception, taken from the respectable farmers and mechanics of the 
land, and were men who made no pretensions to a knowledge of the 
artificial rules which go to make up what we professional gentle- 
men are wont to call the perfection of reason ; but who decided 
the questions coming before them by the plain principles of common 
sense, and their own views of right and wrong. And it is no dis- 
paragement to (he fair fame of the courts of common pleas of that 
day to assert, that that in which Judge Staring presided, was in no 
respect inferior to its sister tribunals. And I have the authority of a 
lawyer once holding a distinguished rank at the bar of this State, 
and whose partialities, all who remember him will bear me witness, 
betrayed, at least, no especial leaning to the Dutch, I mean the late 
Erastus Clark, in the opinion, that for strength of mind, correctness 
of judgment, and unflinching integrity, he never knew a man who, 
with so limited an education, in the station which he held, could 
have been regarded his superior. A great many anecdotes illus- 
trative of his simplicity of character are related. I will merely 
revert to one well known to many of my hearers. Under the in- 
solvent laws of the day, a debtor could make an application to a 
judge of the county courts for a discharge from his debts, upon 
making an assignment of all his property. One day an unfortunate 
debtor applied to him to obtain '.he relief afforded by the statute, 
and having prepared and duly executed his assignment, wailed the 
signature of the judge to perfect his discharge. Well, said he, 
have you got all things ready. Yes, replied the debtor; every 
thing is prepared — -all you have to do is to sign my discharge. 
Very well, said the judge, have you paid all your debts? O no, ^ 
said the debtor; if I had I should not apply for the benefit of the 
statute. But, replied the judge, I can't sign the paper till you have 
paid all your debts : you must pay your debts first. Upon this 
point he was inexorable, and the applicant was forced to seek else- 
where the relief he desired. 

On the 19th of January, 1793, an act was passed authorising 
every alternate term of the court of common pleas of Herkimer 
county to be held at such place in Whitestown, as should by the 
courts be directed by orders to be entered in the minutes. The first 
court held in this county under this provision was held in a barn, in 



1 



29 

New Hartford, belonging to the late Judge Sanger, (New Hartford 
then forming a part of the town of Whitestown,) in the month of Octo- 
ber, in the year 1793, ,li(dge Staring presiding, and the late Judge 
Piatt, then clerk of the county of Oneida, officiating as clerk. The 
sheritr of Herkimer county at that day was a Colonel Colbraith — an 
Irishman, who, in the war, had done some service to his adopted 
country, and had acquired his title as a militia officer since the 
peace. His education had not been conducted with especial ref- 
erence to the usages of what is technically called good society ; and 
indeed, his manners bore unequivocal evidence that they originated 
from a native mine of genuine good humor and a most copacious 
soul, rather than from the arbitrary rules of a professor of polite 
breeding. A gentleman who attended the court as a spectator, in- 
formed me, that the day was one of the damp, chilly days we fre- 
quently have in October, and that in the afternoon and when it was 
nearly night, in order to comfort themselves in their by no means 
very well appointed court room, and to keep their vital blood at a 
temperature at which it would continue to circulate, some of the 
gentleman of the bar had induced the sheriff to procure from a 
neighboring inn, a jug of spirits. This, it must be remembered, 
was before the invention of temperance societies, and we may not, 
therefore, pass too hasty an opinion upon the propriety of the meas- 
ure. Upon the jug appearing in court, it was passed around the 
bar table, and each of the learned counsellors in his turn upraised 
the elegant vessel and decanted into his mouth, by the simplest pro- 
cess imaginable, so much as he deemed a sufficient dose of the 
delicious fluid. While the operation was going on, the dignitaries 
on the bench, who were no doubt, suffering quite as much from the 
chilliness of the weather as their brethren of the bar, had a little 
consultation, when the first Judge announced to the audience that 
the court saw no reason why they should continue to hold open 
there any longer and freeze to death, and desired the crier forth- 
with to adjourn the court. Before, however, this functionary could 
commence with a single — " Hear ye," Colonel Colbraith jumped 
up, catching as he rose, the jug from the lawyer who was compli- 
menting its contents, and holding it up towards the bench, hastily 
ejaculated — " Oh no, no, no. Judge — don't adjourn yet — take a lit- 
tle gin, Judge — that will keep you warm — 'tant time to adjourn 
yet ;" and suiting the action to the word, he handed His Honor 



30 

(he jug. It appeared that there was force in the Sheriff's advice; 
for the order to adjourn was revoked, and the business went on. 

Judge Staring continued in office until after the erection of 
Oneida county, and finally resigned his office shortly after that 
event. His death took place after the year 1800, but at what pre- 
cise period I have been unable to learn. 

In my former lecture, I incidentally mentioned the settlement of 
Whitestown in the year 1784. I should, however, remark that 
some years previous two men, named Roof and Brodock, from the 
German Flatts, had established themselves with their families at 
the landing place on the Mohawk, in the vicinity of fort Stanwix, 
and gained a livelihood by assisting in the transportation of the 
goods destined for the Indian trade, across the carrying place from 
the river to Wood Creek. They held no title to their lands, but 
occupied them under a contract for their purchase from Oliver De- 
lancy, one of the proprietors of the Oriskany patent, who was af- 
terwards attainted of treason as an adherent to the enemy. This 
little out post was, however, broken up during the war, but after the 
return of peace, the settlers returned and took up their residence 
in their former home. This was, in fact, the first white settlement 
in central New York ; but the great work of colonizing this re- 
gion, and converting the wilderness into a garden, can hardly be 
said to have been commenced by these early emigrants. The pio 
neer in this enterprise, and he who led the way for the sons of the 
pilgrims into the as yet unbroken forest, was the late Hugh White. 
In this individual were combined many striking traits of character, 
eminently calculated to fit him for the post he occupied. Possess- 
ing an uncommon vigor of intellect, an ardent spirit of enterprise, 
an intrepidity and energy that is rarely to be met with, and a per- 
severance and devotion to his purpose that regarded no obstacle as 
insurmountable, few men could have compared with him, in the 
proper endowments of the frontier settler. His native place was 
Middlelown, Connecticut, where he had all his life resided up to the 
period of his emigration. He had then attained the age of 51 
years. Immediately after the war, he had by purchase, become 
one of the proprietors of Sadaquada Patent, and held it jointly 
with Zephaniah Piatt, the father of the late Judge Piatt, Ezra L'- 
Hommedieu and Melancthon Smith. By an arrangement between 
the proprietors, it was agreed that they should meet at the land in 



31 

the summer of 1784, and make a survey and partition of it. He 
determined at once to make it his home, and accordingly, in the 
month of May of that year, he left his native place, accompanied 
by his four sons, all of whom had arrived at manhood, a daughter 
and daughter-in-law. The party made passage by water to Albany, 
there crossed the carrying place to Schenectady, and procuring a 
batteau, ascended the Mohawk. In the month of June they arrived 
at the mouth of the Sauquoit Creek. They there erected a shanty 
for their temporary accommodation, while surveying and dividing 
the lands. This being done, the owners drew for their several 
shares, and the lot which fell to Judge White being all interval land, 
he purchased of Smith the lot drawn by him in its rear, which ex- 
tended to the south line of the patent upon the hill. The whole 
constituted fifteen hundred acres, comprehending all the land lying 
on both sides of the Sauquoit Creek, from the corner formed by 
the road leading to the Oneida Factory, to that fvt Berry's in Whites- 
boro, and extending from the bank of the Mohawk back on the 
hills more than a mile southward from the latter village. Upon ob- 
taining the partition, he at once proceeded to the erection of a log 
house. A site was soon fixed upon on the bank which forms the 
eastern boundary of the village green in Whitesboro, and about six 
rods from the left side of the road as you rise the bank on entering 
the village. This was just on the right hand of the Indian path 
which led from old fort Schuyler, the site of our city, to fort Stan- 
wlx, and which path soon became, and for several years continued 
to be, the only road between the two points. The house was 
erected, and he remained there with his sons until the winter, cut- 
ting away the forest, and making preparations for the operations of 
the ensuing season. In the January succeeding, he returned to Con- 
necticut and brought his wife and the remainder of his family. At 
this time, we can with difficulty estimate the trials, and perplexities, 
and privations which the new settler had then to encounter. The 
various inventions contrived within the last half century to relieve 
the inconveniencies, and provide for the comfort of those who go 
forth into the wilderness, have rendered emigration to a new and 
uncultivated and uninhabited country, a matter of comparatively 
little hardship ; and we now bid farewell to the friend bound with 
his family to the distant fields of the far west, and expecting to plant 
his standard scores of miles beyond the smoke of any neighbor's 



32 

cottage, and many hundreds, and even thousands, from the home of 
his childhood and the faces which are familiar to him, very much as 
we exchange salutations with our neighbor, who is leaving his home 
on a visit for a week. 

At this period, the Indian title had not been extinguished to any 
portion of the country westward of the line of property, running 
irom a point near the northwest corner of the town of Bridgewater 
northwesterly to a point on Wood Creek four or five miles west of 
Rome, and terming the western boundary of Coxe's Patent, as laid 
down on the maps of the county. Most of the Oneidas, it was 
known, had, during the war which was just terminated, maintained 
their professions of friendship for the Americans in a consistent and 
honorable manner. But the fact was well understood, that their 
confederate tribes in the Six Nations still felt the smart of the blow 
inflicted upon them five years before, in the expedition made into 
their country by the army under General Sullivan, and secretly de- 
sired an opportunity to take vengeance upon the countrymen of 
those who then" chastised them. This rendered his position that 
of a frontier settler, and required of him the exercise of much pru- 
dence and sagacity in his intercourse with his neighbors. He soon 
acquired their good will, and had the good fortune to inspire them 
with very exalted ideas of his character and prowess. For many 
years after his arrival at Whitestown, quite a number of the Onei- 
das resided at Oriskany, and an Indian clearing of over two hun- 
dred acres, now forming a part of the farms known as the " Green 
Farms," had been formed there long anterior to the Revolutionary 
War. His intercourse with this little settlement was marked by an 
incident which illustrates the feeling that was entertained for him 
by its inhabitants. An old chief, named Han Yerry, who, during 
the war, had acted with the royal party, and now resided at Oris- 
kany in a log wigwam which stood on this side of the creek, jusi 
back of the house, until recently, occupied by Mr. Charles Green, 
one day called at Judge White's with his wife and a mulatto 
woman who belonged to him, and who acted as his interpreter. 
After conversing with him a little while, the Indian asked him — 
Ave you my friend ? Yes, said he. Well, then, said the Indian, 
do you believe I am your friend 1 Yes, Han Yerry, replied he'; I 
believe you are. The Indian then rejoined — Well, if you are my 
friend, and you believe I am your friend, I will tell you what I 



want, and then I shall know whether you speak true words. And 
what is it that you want 1 said Mr. White. The Indian then pointed 
to a little grand child, the daughter of one of his sons, then be- 
tween two and three years old, and said, — my squaw wants lo take 
this pappoose home with us to stay one ni^ht, and bring her home 
to-morrow : if you are my friend, you will now show me. The 
feelings of the grand-father at once uprose in his bosom, and the 
child's mother started with horror and alarm at the thought of en- 
trusting her darling prattler with the rude tenants of the forest. 
The question was full of interest. On the one hand, the necessity 
of placing unlimited confidence in the savage, and entrusting the 
welfare and the life of his grand-child with him ; on the other, the 
certain enmity of a man of influence and consequence in his na- 
tion, and one who had been the open enemy of his countrymen in 
their recent struggle. But he made the decision with a sagacity 
that showed that he properly estimated the character of the person 
he was dealing with. He believed that by placing implicit confi- 
dence in him, he should command the sense of honor which seems 
peculiar to the uncontaminated Indian. He told him to take the 
child; and as the mother, scarcely suffering it to be parted from 
her, relinquished it into the hands of the old man's wife, he soothed 
her fears with his assurances of confidence in their promises. That 
night, however, was a long one ; and during the whole of the next 
morning many and often were the anxious glances cast up the path-- 
way leading from Oriskany, if possible, to discover the Indians and 
their little charge, upon their return to its home. But no Indians 
came in sight. It at length became high noon : all a mother's fears 
were aroused : she could scarcely be restrained from rushing in 
pursuit of her loved one. But her father represented to her the 
gross indignity which a suspicion of their intentions would arouse 
in the breast of the chief ; and half frantic though she was, she was 
restrained. The afternoon slowly wore away, and still nothing was 
seen of her child. The sun had nearly reached the horizon, and 
the mother's heart had swollen beyond further endurance, when the 
forms of the friendly chief and his wife, bearing upon her shoulders 
their little visitor, greeted its mother's vision. If there is a mother 
present who hears my tale, she can tell more perfectly than I can 
describe, that mother's feelings as she clasped the little one once 

more to her bosom, and felt its warm heart pulsate to her own. The 
5 



34 

dress which the child had worn from home had been removed, and 
in its place its Indian friends had substituted a complete suit of In- 
dian garments, so as completely to metamorphose it into a little 
squaw. The sequel of this adventure was the establishment of a 
most ardent attachment and regard on the part of the Indian and 
his friends for the white settlers. The child, now Mrs. Eells of 
Missouri, the widow of the late Nathaniel Eells of Whitesboro, 
still remembers some incidents occurring on the night of her stay 
in the wigwam, and the kindness of her Indian hostess. 

Another anecdote of Judge White, may not be uninteresting in 
this connection. An Oneida chief, of rather an athletic form, was 
one day present at his house with a number of his companions, and 
at length, for amusement, the party commenced wrestling. After 
a number of trials had been made, the chief came forward and 
challenged the settler to a clench with him. This was done in a 
manner, and with a degree of braggadocio, which convinced him, 
that if he refused to encounter him it would subject him to the con- 
stant inconvenience of being brow beaten by the Indian, and cost 
him the trouble of being believed a coward. In early manhood 
he had been a wrestler, but he had now become quite corpulent, 
and for years unused to any athletic feats. He felt conscious, how- 
ever, of great personal strength, and he concluded, that even should 
he be thrown, yet as a choice of evils, the being thrown would be 
a lesser one than the acquiring a character of cowardice by declin- 
ing. He therefore accepted the challenge and took hold with the 
Indian, and by a fortunate trip, succeeded almost instantly in throw- 
ing him. As he saw him falling, in order to prevent the necessity 
of ever making another trial of his powers, and of receiving any 
new challenge, he contrived to fall with all his weight, he then con- 
stituting an avoirdupois of some 250 lbs., and as heavily as possible, 
upon the Indian. The weight, for an instant, drove all breath 
from the poor fellow's body ; and it was some moments before he 
could get up. At length he slowly arose, shrugged his shoulders 
with an emphatic — "Ugh! you good fellow, too much!" I need 
not add, that he was never again challenged to wrestle with an In- 
dian. 

I have remarked, that in January, 1785, Judge White brought 
his whole family from their former home and established them per- 
manently at Whitesboro. In four years after this, he erected the 



35 

house still standing on the southeastern corner of the village green 
at Whitesboro, and continued to occupy it until a year or two pre- 
vious to his death, when he removed to the house owned by him 
upon the hill, at the junction of the road leading from Whitesboro 
to Middle Settlement with the road leading from this city past the 
Burrstone Factory. His death took place at this latter residence, 
on the 10th of April, in the year 1812. Immediately on the organ- 
ization of Herkimer county, he was appointed one of its Judges, and 
held the office until the erection of this county, alter which, for 
many years, he performed the duties of the same office in this 
county. 

I have mentioned that the early settlement of this country was 
attended with many inconveniences and trials of which it is difficult 
for us now to form an adequate idea. For the first two years of 
Judge White's residence at Whitesboro, the nearest mill was situ- 
ated at Palatine, a distance of about forty miles. This distance 
too, it must be borne in mind, must be traversed by an Indian path 
perfectly impassable by any wheeled carriage, and barely permitting 
a horse to thread his way through it. And I have often heard the 
early settlers of this county speak of having carried bags of grain 
upon their backs this distance to be ground, and then returning with 
the flour in the same manner. In 1786, the mill situated on the 
Sauquoit, on the road to Whitesboro, now called Wetmore's mill, 
was erected by him and the lato Amos jWetmore. This was the 
first grist mill in the vicinity. 

At the period of his settlement, the agricultural operations of the 
few inhabitants scattered along the Mohawk valley, from Palatine 
to the German Flatts, had not revived after the suspension caused 
by the border war, which had been waged upon them by the war 
parties of hostile Indians, who were frequently making incursions 
upon them. And for several years the whole produce of the country 
was barely sufficient to meet the demand created by the emigration 
which immediately followed the beginning made by Judge White. 
The want of animal food, for the first year, was severely felt by the 
settlers. The war had exhausted nearly all the stock of cattle and 
sheep of the farmers on the Mohawk, and the few that remained 
were kept with peculiar care for tho purpose of increasing the 
number, and supplying the demand for stocking their farms anew, 
so as to render domestic animals quite too valuable to be killed for 



present convenience. During the summer of 1784, the stock of 
meats brought with them furnished them an abundance, and in the 
succeeding winter the demand for food had been supplied by the 
game which was taken ; but it was foreseen that during the next 
summer, little dependance could be placed upon this resource by 
men who wished to devote themselves to the cultivation of the soil. 
In the spring however, the quantities of pigeons in the woods 
were so great and so easily taken, as to suggest the idea of pre- 
paring a stock of summer provisions from them. With this view, 
they took great numbers of them, and separating the breasts from 
the remainder of the birds, salted them and laid away one or two 
barrels of this singular species of food. This answered as an 
apology for some thing better; and those who ate it declare that, 
although not so palatable as some delicacies that might be named, 
yet it tasted nearly as well as the salt that vvas put upon it, besides 
carrying the idea of being '^ actual meat victuals" to boot. These 
were but a small specimen of a thousand little inconveniences and 
perplexities which the early settlers had to encounter. But they 
were met and endured with a good nature and a disposition to make 
the best of their situation, which disarmed them of half their sting. 
As the settlement of the country went on, they gradually disap- 
peared, while their memory, for many a year, furnished amusement 
and satisfaction, and the theme of many a joyous meeting to those 
who had endured them. 

In the year 17S6, the settlement of Whitestown had so far in- 
creased, that its inhabitants formed a religious society, and em- 
ployed as a minister, the Reverend Doctor Hillyer, of Orange, 
New Jersey, and organized the first Presbyterian church which 
had been formed in the state west of Albany. Whitestown now 
began to occupy a considerable space in the public eye, and the 
emigration into this region went on with accelerated velocity. In 
1786, a settlement of twenty families was made at Clinton. The 
next year a number of families planted themselves at New Hart- 
ford, and in 1781, churches were organized in both these settle- 
ments. In March, 1788, less than four years after the landing of 
Judge White at the mouth of the Sauquoit Creek, the town of 
Whitestown was organized, with limits which are rather astound- 
ing to the map makers of the present day. Montgomery county, it 
will be recollected, comprehended all the state west of the then 



37 

county of Albany. Whitestown was laid off by a line crossing the 
Mohawk at William Cunningham's house, (a small log cabin which 
siood at the lower end of Genesee street, upon the site occupied by 
the Railroad Depot,) and running north and south to the boundaries 
of the state, and comprehending all the state lying westward, — a 
territory which, by the census of 1835, was inhabited by more than 
a million of inhabitants. The first town meeting was held at a barn 
then owned by Needham Maynard, Esquire, situated on the road 
leading from Whitesboro to Middle Settlement. I may here re- 
mark, that the eastern boundary of Whitestown continued at the 
same point until the erection of Oneida county eleven years after- 
wards, when the line was thrown eastward to the present line of the 
county, in order that the whole of the settlement here might be in- 
cluded in the town of Whitestown. The poll of the first general 
election for the town was opened at Cayuga, then adjourned to the 
present village of Salina to receive the votes of some settlers who 
resided there, thence to Rome, and closed finally at Whitestown. 
One of the inspectors of this election was the late Erastus Clark, 
then a resident of Clinton. 

During the same year, a treaty was made with the Oneidas by 
Governor Clinton, William Floyd, Ezra L'Hommedieu, Richard 
Varick, Samuel Jones, Egbert Benson and Peter Gansevoort, Com- 
missioners acting on behalf of the State, by the terms of which, the 
nation ceded all their lands to the State, receiving back from it by 
way of grant, the lands reserved by them for their own purposes, 
and among other rights, the right of fishing in the waters of Fish 
Creek arid Oneida Lake forever. By this treaty, the actual sover- 
eignty of the Oneidas forever ceased ; and instead of remaining an 
independent nation, exercising their own control over their own ter- 
ritory, they became tenants, acknowledging fealty to the stale gov- 
ernment for the very soil which the God cf nature had given them, 
and which contained the ashes of generations of their fathers. The 
plea of necessity is made in excuse for many of our dealings with 
the red men of our country, and perhaps it may in this instance be 
urged, that the welfare of this then savage tribe demanded that the 
power of controlling them by the force of the white men's laws 
should be extended over them. But it cannot be denied, that the 
operation of the treaty upon their nation could not have been com- 
prehended by the simple and unsuspicious and friendly n£.tives of 



38 

i 

the forest, when it was proposed to them on the part of the state 
authorities ; and it is mournful to reflect, that in this case, nego- 
tiations and the semblance of a fair bargain, has silently been made 
to work for the Oneidas the same result, which open and unblushing 
wrong and violation of faith, in view of the nation and the world, 
has effected for the hapless Cherokees. We should bear this in 
mind, as we see the miserable and degraded victims of vice, who 
occasionally visit our streets, bearing the name and inheriting the 
blood of the countrymen of Sconondoaand Plattcopf— a name that, 
while it struck with terror, commanded the respect of all who heard 
it ;— blood that the chivalry of the middle ages might have coveted 
for its characteristics of noble bearing. I say we should bear these 
facts in mind, and each American should, by his sympathy and his 
exertions, do all in his power to promote the efforts of those who 
are engaged in the business of introducing Christianity and the arts 
of civilization among the remnant of the native lords of the whole 
American soil, who still exist as mere mementos of their former 
oreatness. The dealings of Providence with the whole Indian 
race, have been very mysterious, and to us, unfathomable. The 
history of the world furnishes the character of no savage people 
with so much to admire and so little to disapprove as theirs. While 
fals3hood, treachery, gross impurity and disgusting and soul-enslav- 
ino' idolatry in its ten thousand forms, have characterised the savage 
of every other portion of the globe, and have accompanied, in their 
inarch through barbarism up to a semi-civilization, the ancient states 
of Egypt, Assyria, Greece and Rome, and the various empires 
of India, Burmah and China, verifying the repulsive picture which 
the great Apostle to the Gentiles gives of man left to the workings 
of his reprobate mind and uninfluenced by the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity, — the Indian, wherever found uncontaminated by the vices of 
civilization, exemplifies the virtues of truth, fidelity and chastity, 
and is found the awe-inspired worshipper of one great, disembodied 

Spirit, the creator, governor and father of all things. Yet we 

have seen the grovelling and besotted votaries of Brama, the sup- 
porters of the ten thousand deities of Greek and Roman mythol- 
ogy with all its soul-polluting and disgusting orgies, the blood- 
stained worshippers of the Northerm, and the Druidical idolatries, 
borne with by the hand of Mercy until, upon their benighted minds, 
a purer light should break to convert them to the true God : while 



3d 

to the poor Indian, the Star of Bethlehem has hitherto but seemed 
a taper to light him to the grave, — not the day-spring from on high 
to usher in a glorious morning, but the evening star soon, for him, 
to set in darkness — the blackness of obUvion. 

The Oneidas seem destined to follow in the footsteps of the 
thousands of their red brethren who have disappeared] before the 
march of the white man, like the dew before the risen sun. And 
there are peculiar features in the circumstances connected with 
their]history which excite a most melancholy, heart-distressing in- 
terest. I have remarked, that the Six Nations were distinguished 
for their noble traits of character above their brethren, even of their 
own noble race ; and the Oneidas were particularly regarded as 
among the most generous of the confederation. At the time when 
the confederation consistedof but five nations, the Mohawks, Onei- 
das, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas, and when, after the Tus- 
caroras, then occupying a portion of Virginia, had been vanquished 
by the arms of the colonists in 1712, it was concluded to adopt 
them into the league, the Oneidas gave them a home upon their 
possession, and at the time of the Rev. Mr. Kirkland's arrival at 
Oneida, and for several years afterwards, they occupied a territory 
lying east of Oneida and composing at present a part of the towns 
of Vernon and Augusta. Subsequently to the war, and previous to 
the year 1795, they were invited by the Senecas to occupy a por- 
tion of their possessions, and took leave of their former abode. In 
1787, the Oneidas learning the condition of the Mohegan and Stock- 
bridge Indians, and how they were dwindling from a too near neigh- 
borhood to the whites, sent a delegation to invite them to come and 
make their home with them, and generously ceded to them the use 
of the lands known as the Brothertown and New Stockbridge tracts, 
for so long a period as they should choose to occupy them. This 
was done with the fond hope that here might be a safe resting place 
for them and their brethren, to grow up together in the knowledge 
and the arts of civilization. How soon that hope withered ! A 
generation had not passed away — the locks of those who in man- 
hood had welcomed their brethren to their new home had not whi- 
tened, before the nation saw itself degraded and polluted with the 
vices of the white man, and daily sinking and disappearing beneath 
their influence, with no hope of escape but that afforded by a remo- 
val from the neighborhood of their seductions. The more thonght- 



40 

ful of the nation, therefore, in the year 1820, began to look for a 
new land where th^y and their children might gradually acquire the 
manners and habits of civilized life, away from the temptations and 
evil influence of those who, for sordid and wicked purposes, sought 
to corrupt ihem. A purchase was made by them of a territory at 
Green Bay, on the west shore of Lake Michigan, for all who chose 
to remove thither. The din of the settler was then unheard with- 
in five hundred miles, and they reasonably hoped, that before the 
accursed thirst of gain should have driven our countrymen to the 
neighborhood cf their retreat, they would have grownup into the 
early manhood of civilization. An emigration from the nation at 
once commenced and has continued from year to year, until few of 
the enterprising and worthy remain at the ancient seat of their fa- 
thers. But a result which no fear foretold has befallen them. The 
white man is again upon them, — his vices again devastating them, 
and preparing the way for a speedy destruction^ The' home of 
their adoption, as well as the home of their fathers, must be bidden 
farewell, and a new asylum found in the farther regions of the west. 
And they are now preparing, by a removal to a distant terri- 
tory in Arkansas, to make one more effort to transmit to their child- 
ren, with the name of their fathers, their virtues, and under circum- 
stances which may afford a hope that their humble beginnings in the 
arts of civilization may not be crushed by the approach of the vicious 
influences they have twice fled to avoid. That a better fate await 
them there, who will not pray t and yet praying, who, in view of 
the subject, dare to hope? The spectacle is most mournful. A 
people, but yesterday opening its arms to receive the vanquished to 
its bosom — to grant an asylum to the hapless and the homeless, for 
whom no kindred blood pleaded — cheerfully parting its possessions 
to the remnants of races once its enemies, and making them its 
brethren and its children ; — to-day separated from its loved home, 
as the only means to separate its sons from vice and annihilation, 
and occupying a distant and far-off land, — and preparing to-morrow, 
as its new home had begun to be associated with pleasant recollec- 
tions, to tear itself from it, and seek in the still farther wilderness a 
resting place that should prove an asylum from the seductions and 
vices which environed the footsteps of its children. They who had 
fed and clothed and furnished pleasant homes to strangers and the 
oppressed, to become themselves strangers in a strange land, to es- 



41 

cape the miserable alternative of becoming outcasts and a scoff in' 
their own ! 

In April, 1798, the county of Oneida was erected, comprehend- 
ing in its boundaries the present counties of Oneida, St. Lawrence, 
JefFerson, Lewis and Oswego. The first court held after its erec- 
tion was a court of common pleas, held in the school house near 
Fort Stanwix, in the town of Rome, on the third Tuesday of May, 
1799. The late Jedediah Sanger, of New Hartford, as first judge 
of the county, presiding, assisted by the late David Ostrom, of this 
city, and George Huntington, of Rome, judges, and the late Judge 
Piatt acting as clerk. The first circuit court held for Oneida county 
was held in September of the same year, at the same place, the late 
Chancellor Lansing, then Chief Justice of the State, presiding. 
The courts continued to be held at the same school house in Rome 
until after the December term of the court of common pleas in 
1807. At that term, I find an entry setting forth that the court 
were informed by Charles C. Brodhead, Esquire, sheriff, that the 
gaol at Whitestown had been completed, and that he had removed 
the prisoners belonging to the county from the Herkimer county 
gaol, and that they were now confined there. The court thereupon 
made an order, directing the next session to be held at the school 
house near the gaol in Whitestown, and from that period one-half 
of the courts of common pleas appear to have been held there, and 
the remainder at Rome. The circuits were, however, generally 
held in Whitestown. 

In connection with this subject, I have mentioned the name of 
Jedediah Sanger, and the space he occupied in the early history of 
the county demands more than a passing notice. Forming a part 
of the first colony which planted themselves in the village of New 
Hartford, an active, vigorous and enterprising mind, governed and 
controlled by unimpeachable integrity, & a high sense of moral obli- 
gation, placed him at once in a conspicuous station among the inhab- 
itants of the vicinity. Immediately after his establishment, he 
erected a grist mill on the site of the present paper mill in the vil- 
lage of New Hartford, then the second mill established in the 
vicinity. By a judicious and liberal encouragement to emigrants, 
and particularly mechanics, he succeeded in building up a village, 
which, for many years, contested the palm of superiority and im- 
portance with any of her neighbors. The office of first judge of 



42 

Oneida county he continued to hold from its organization until the 
year ISIO. He several times occupied a seat in the Legislature, 
and in the various offices in which he was called to act, served with 
equal credit to himself and usefulness to the community. To his 
benificence the Episcopal Church in New Hartford is indebted for 
a valuable permanent fund to aid in the support of its minister. 

The settlement of XJtica commenced at an early period, but was 
not prosecuted with the vigor that the neighboring settlements were. 
Whitestown was regarded as the great central point of the whole 
region up to the years 1793 or 1794. At this period quite a village 
had grown up there, while Utica, or old fort Schuyler, as its site was 
then called, could boast of but three houses. About this time the 
public attention was directed to Rome, as the probable future me- 
tropolis of the State. Its local position favored the idea. It occu- 
pied the portage or carrying place between the Mohawk and Wood 
Creek, which discharging through Oneida Lake into Lake Ontario, 
formed a channel of communication between the Hudson and the 
whole chain of western Lakes. The connecting the two streams 
by a navigable canal, which was projected at a very early day, and 
was accomplished by the Western Inland Lock Navigation Com- 
pany, which was chartered in 1792, encouraged the belief, that that 
site must become the focus of the business of the country. And 
for several years the growth of Rome warranted the expectation. 
The location of the Seneca turnpike road first operated to change 
the current of business and divert it to this location. This event 
took place in the year ISOO, and the crossing of the River at this 
point rendered it immediately important as a place of deposite and 
of trade. A steady and healthful growth ensued, and the aid and 
influence of enlightened and enterprising men in the various walks 
of life, contributed very shortly to render it the leading place of bu- 
siness in the neighborhood. Its present iname was given to it in 
179S, when it was incorporated as a village, and it has since then 
continued its municipal capacity until the present day. The first 
church gathered in this city was organized under the care of the 
Reverend Bethuel Dodd, as a branch of the church at Whitestown, 
in the year 1794. The style of the corporation was — " The united 
Presbyterian Societies of Whitestown and old Fort Schuyler." 
Previous to that time, although the people of Whitestown had em- 
ployed a clergyman, the Rev. Dr. Hillyer, whom I have already 



43 

mentioned, they had not settled a Pastor. Mr. Dodd was ordained 
Pastor of the United Societies. The union of the two churches 
continued for more than twenty years under the pastorates of Mr. 
Dodd and his successor, the Rev. Doctor Carnahan. They were 
the first Presbyterian churches organized west of the city of Alba- 
ny, those at Clinton and New Hartford being Congregational in 
their forms of government. The Episcopal Church in this city 
was gathered in 1798, and its present church edifice erected in 
1803. 

I had intended in the present lecture to give detailed notices of a 
number of persons in the various walks of life, who occupied 
prominent places in the history of Oneida county ; but in looking 
over my catalogue, I find that any thing beyond a simple mention 
of their names, would occupy quite too large a space for a popular 
lecture. In taking a survey of the early inhabitants of the county 
one cannot fail to be struck with the degree of energy, enterprise, 
talent and cultivation which characterized the community, and gave 
a tone and life to the whole fabric of society. Within fifteen years 
from the day it was one unbroken wilderness, a community sprung 
up possessing all the constituents which go to form the best regu- 
lated states of society. A body of farmers unsurpassed for intel- 
ligence, good sense and sterling worth by the agriculturists of any 
land ; a class of merchants active, intelligent, enterprizing and an 
ornament to their caUing ; a bar learned, dignified, and which 
shone for years, a brilliant galaxy of talent and erudition ; a,^ci- 
entific and highly educated medical faculty, and a clergy that would 
be a blessing to any land. Without enumerating many who still 
remain with us, affording us worthy specimens of the generation 
nearly passed away, and examples for the imitation of the present 
one, among the names of those who have ceased from their labors, 
those of Sanger and Risley, of New Hartford, of Bristol and 
Gridley and Hart, of Paris, of White and Lansing, of Whites- 
town, of Colt and the Wrights, at Rome, of Mappa and Fisk, of 
Trenton, and a long list of others which will occur to each person 
conversant with the county, are sufiicient to justify the remark, that 
the farmers of those days were men of whom we may justly feel 
an honest pride. And a glance at those who then occupied the 
place of merchants and physicians, will show that these professions 
were also filled with no ordinary men. In the profession of law, 



44 

ihe names of Gold, and Piatt, and Breese, and Clark, and Will-. 
iams, and Sill, are alone sufficient to place in the first rank, the 
character of the bar of any court. And, to revert to the clergy, 
the memory of the first pastor of the church here and at Whites- 
town, the Reverend Bethuel Dodd, lives fresh in the memory of all 
who knew him, and will be transmitted with veneration to their 
children's children. In this city, also, the Rev. Philander Chase, 
now the Rt. Rev. Bishop of Illinois, officiated as an humble mis- 
sionary, and gathered a little flock, the germ of the Episcopal 
Church. At New Hartford, the Rev. Dan Bradley, a devoted ser- 
vant of the Cross, was settled as a pastor in 1791, and continued 
his care o( the church for several years. He was succeeded by 
the Rev. Mr. Johnson, and in honor of the occasion of his induc- 
tion to the pastoral office, according to a custom which sounds 
singular in our ears, but which was introduced from New England, 
the exercises of the day were concluded by an ordination ball. 
The Rev. Dr. Norton became pastor of the church at Clinton 
about the year 1792, and continued to officiate in its desk until 
within the last three or four years, when, yielding to the infirmities 
of age, he relinquished it. It would be easy to swell the list of 
names, that our county then boasted, which would be an honor 
to any community. And while it numbered among its inhabitants 
such specimens as I have alluded to, the general tone of its soci- 
ety was characterized by the hospitality which is a peculiar feature 
of newly settled countries, together with a freedom from the merely 
artificial usages of life, combined in a remarkable degree with the 
intellectual cultivation, and the elegancies and accomplishments of 
the most polished circles. The residents of all parts of the county 
met and mingled in their social .intercourse, and the phrase, »' our 
neighborhood," comprehended in its limits all the territory within 
a good day's ride. A horse-back excursion of fifteen miles, over 
roads which would be deemed impassable by a cavalier of the 
present day, to pay a visit to a belle, was regarded as a mere bag- 
atelle by the young gentlemen of that period. And the parties, and 
balls and other merry-makings, used to call together all the availa- 
ble constituents of the beau monde from every neighborhood in the 
vicinity. The fashionables of the present day, might perhaps smile 
at the style in which the belles were occasionally transported to the 
place of gathering, A frequent one in the earliest years of the 






45 

settlement, was the primitive one of riding on horseback en croupe, 
behind the gallants who invited them. In the state of the roads at 
that period, travelling on horse-back was frequently the only safe 
or, indeed, practicable method of locomotion, and it was certainly 
much more sociable and primitive, for the gentleman and lady to 
ride upon the same horse, while threading a dilfficult way, than for 
each one to be all engrossed with the business of guiding a sepa- 
rate animal ; and upon the point of delicacy and propriety, possibly 
as much might be said in favor of sitting upon the same horse, as in 
the same gig, or upon the same sofa, and perhaps with equal perti- 
nency and justice. 

In concluding this lecture, I would remark, that the history of 
our county is a subject which, while it demands the attention of 
those of us to whom it is, either by birth or adoption, a home, will 
richly repay the student for his labors in acquiring a knowledge of 
it. From the slight glances which 1 have given of Men and Events 
connected with it, it will readily appear, that it is a rich mine to him 
who will explore its recesses. And if my humble endeavors to call 
your attention to the subject shall have contributed to extend a 
knowledge of those to whom we are indebted for the beautiful and 
pleasant inheritance we enjoy, and to the means by which it has 
reached its present state, I shall be amply rewarded for them. 



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